Musical Punctuation: Bar Lines and Measures
In addition to horizontal staff lines, music — including piano music — employs some vertical lines to help you keep track of where you are in the music, sort of like punctuation in a written sentence.
Think of a music staff as a time line. In the same way that the face of a clock can be divided into minutes and seconds, the music staff can be divided into smaller units of time. These smaller units of time help you count the beat and know where you are in the song at all times.
A bar line divides music into measures (also called bars), breaking up the musical paragraph into smaller, measurable groups of notes and rests as shown in the following figure where the slash marks represent each beat:
Each measure has a specific number of beats — most commonly, four beats. Measures help group beats into patterns and help organize the writing and reading of music for both the composer and the performer. This smaller grouping of four beats is pretty easy to count: Just think “1, 2, 3, 4,” and then begin again with “1” in each subsequent measure.
A short, three-minute song can have more than 200 separate beats. Measures help make sure that you don’t get lost keeping time.
Five types of bar lines give you directions on how the music is structured, when and where to repeat, and when to stop:
Single: Go on to the next measure.
Double: Proceed to the next section (because you’ve reached the end of this one!).
Start repeat: Repeat back to this measure.
End repeat: Repeat back to the measure that begins with a start repeat (or to the beginning if you don’t see a start repeat).
Final: You’ve reached the end! Stop playing!
The five types of bar line.
Piano Glossary
accidental
A sharp or flat not in the key signature.
Piano Glossary
bar line
A line that divides music into measures, breaking up the musical paragraph into smaller, measurable groups of notes and rests.
Piano Glossary
bass clef
A musical symbol that indicates lower the notes, generally played with the left hand.
Piano Glossary
beat
The steady pulse of a piece of music; what you tap your foot to.
Piano Glossary
C position
Placing your right-hand thumb on middle C and your other right-hand fingers on the four successive white keys.
Piano Glossary
chord
Three or more notes played at the same time.
Piano Glossary
Circle of Fifths
An order that starts with no sharps and flats and cycles the ring of keys to all 12 keys.
Piano Glossary
clef
A musical symbol that tells you the names of the lines and spaces on the staff.
Piano Glossary
fingerings
Numbers written above the notes that tell you which finger to use for each note.
Piano Glossary
G position
Placing your right hand on the G above middle C and your other right-hand fingers on the four successive white keys.
Piano Glossary
grand piano
The largest piano. A concert grand is 9 feet long; a baby grand is about 5 feet.
Piano Glossary
grand staff
The treble clef and bass clef joined together with a brace at the start of the left side.
Piano Glossary
home note
The base note of a piece of music. All the notes in a song have a relation to the home note based on how close or far they are to home.
Piano Glossary
interval
The distance between any two musical notes.
Piano Glossary
key
A set of notes that corresponds to a certain scale.
Piano Glossary
key signature
Notation placed just after the clef on every line of music to tell the performer what key the song is in.
Piano Glossary
ledger line
An imaginary line running above or below the staff, extending the five-line staff to represent notes above and below the staff.
Piano Glossary
measure or bar
A batch of notes with a specific number of beats — most commonly four beats — that helps a performer keep time.
Piano Glossary
middle C
The 40th key of a piano, close to the center of the keyboard. The first key a new pianist learns the placement of.
Piano Glossary
MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface
A device that allows communication between electronic, digital equipment.
Piano Glossary
notehead
The printed representation of a note. A notehead is oval and may be solid or open, an attached to a stem or not.
Piano Glossary
octave line or ottava line
The line that tells you to play the indicated note or notes an octave higher or lower than written.
Piano Glossary
root note
The lowest note of a chord.
Piano Glossary
scale
A series of notes in a specific, consecutive order.
Piano Glossary
staff
The five lines and four spaces music is written on.
Piano Glossary
tempo
How fast or slow the beat is.
Piano Glossary
time signature
The indication of the meter of a piece of music.
Piano Glossary
tonic
The bottom note of a scale.
Piano Glossary
treble clef
A musical symbol that indicates higher the notes, generally played with the right hand.
Piano Glossary
triplet
Three notes per beat.
Piano Glossary
upright piano
A piano that sits upright against a wall. Also called verticals, they vary in height from the spinet up to full-size uprights.
